Project Opal sees arrest of alleged Arkona bank robbers: Police [Video]

Four suspects are in custody and one other man is wanted in connection with a string of “coordinated” bank robberies across Ontario, including Arkona, over a two-year period.

At a news conference on Tuesday, police officers with several Ontario law enforcement agencies were on hand to discuss the results of the multi-jurisdictional investigation, dubbed Project Opal.

According to investigators, a group of suspects were responsible for eight bank robberies that happened in western, central, and eastern Ontario between Dec. 8, 2022 and March 16, 2024 — the Arkona robbery was April 4, 2023.

Each police service began investigating bank robberies in their respective regions and “quickly determined” that the robberies were part of a “larger, more coordinated operation,” OPP Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns told reporters on Tuesday morning.

On June 21, 2024, police said three suspects were taken into custody after a planned robbery was interrupted by investigators.

“Officers established that an attempted robbery would take …